


Don't be afraid, you're not alone

by tbat



Category: Xenoblade Chronicles 2 (Video Game)
Genre: F/M, Rex Needs a Hug, and by god pyra's going to give him that hug, he just loves pyra a whole lot okay, i don't know how to angst FORGIVE ME FOR MY SINS, oh no it's the pyrex angst, rex has got some separation anxiety in this
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-09-10
Updated: 2018-09-10
Packaged: 2019-07-10 20:39:42
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,665
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15957104
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/tbat/pseuds/tbat
Summary: Following the events at the World Tree, Rex is still afraid of losing Pyra, and suffers nightmares as a result. One night, for the first time, Pyra finds him in the aftermath of a nightmare.





	Don't be afraid, you're not alone

**Author's Note:**

> This is based on a prompt architect_N3J gave me. Angst is not exactly my territory so I may have made a bit of a mess of this. Do feel free to point out any problems.

It's a sight he knows far too well. The inside of the World Tree. A vast network of metallic corridors, with machinery stretching off far beyond his field of vision. An almost impossibly large structure, breaking down around him. There's a broken bridge in front of him, shattered by falling debris. And there, on the other side, so far away from him, is Pyra.

She's not really Pyra. She  _is_  Pyra. But she isn't. The Architect called her Pneuma. Mythra said she was, in a way, both of them. But to Rex, that girl  _was_ Pyra. She looked like Pyra. She talked like Pyra. She even  _moved_ like Pyra, with a gentle, reserved grace that was a far cry from Mythra's open, confident body language. He couldn't see this girl as anyone other than Pyra.

And right now, across that insurmountable chasm, Pyra is smilingly hollowly at him. Her Core Crystal is clutched in his hands, and he holds onto it as if it  _were_ her, like if he can keep the Crystal safe,  _she'll_ be safe, no matter what.

She calls it something for him to remember her by. As if she's not coming back. As if, after everything they've been through together, she's going to leave. Leave him alone again. Pyra is going to save his life for the second time. At the cost of her own.

He can't accept that. Not her.

His friends had become like the family he'd never really had. Family that he loved deeply. But Pyra was more than that. He'd adored her, ever since they'd first met. She was strong, and kind, and beautiful, and he loved her more than anything. They'd come this far because all he'd wanted was to keep their promise, to take her to Elysium. But she's going to die.

Even thinking about having to live without her is too much to bear for him. A tiny voice in the back of his mind reminds him that Mythra is going to die, too. And that thought brings its own pain. He doesn't want to lose her, either.

But right now, all he can see, all he can focus on, is Pyra.

He wants to cross the bridge, to go with her, to do  _something_ to make sure she came back, that she  _was alive,_ but he  _can't reach her._ His anchor falls uselessly into the abyss seperating him. His friends refuse to help him. They act like there's nothing they can do. They're telling him to let her go. To let her die. Zeke says what he's thinking. That he loves her. Like that's supposed to help, when all it does is make it that much clearer how deeply he wants her to stay with him.

The Tree shudders violently. It's obviously not going to last much longer. Another chunk of debris rains down from above, blocking his view of Pyra for a split second. When it passes, she's gone.

She's  _gone_. She's going back to Aion. To save him. To save Alrest. She's gone and he can't stop her, he can't reach her, he can't  _help_ her, Pyra is going to die and he can't save her,  _Pyra is going to die, Pyra is going to DIE-_

* * *

With a sharp gasp, Rex's eyes shot open. His entire body was tensed up, his hands gripping his bedsheets so tightly that his nails were beginning to dig into his palms through the fabric. His breathing was erratic, rhythmless.

It had happened again. Another nightmare. There hadn't been one in nearly a month. Rex had thought he was finally starting to move past this. Clearly, he'd been wrong.

All the familiar, awful sensations began to wash over him. He was sweating. It was hot, and sticky, and clung horribly to his entire body. The shaking began, making trying to slow his breathing down next to impossible. The crying started. It inevitably came, no matter how hard he tried to supress it. Hot tears flowed down his face and stung at his eyes.

Rex buried his face into his pillow, hoping that muffling his crying would help stop it. Even though he knew there were others in the house, that she was only a room away from him, Rex still felt utterly, crushingly alone. Now, more than ever, he didn't want to be on his own.

* * *

Pyra trod slowly down the hallway, her steps careful and considered. When she'd glanced at the clock in the kitchen, it had read 3am. Far too late to be wandering around Corrine's house, and she certainly didn't want to wake anyone up. Disturbing someone else's sleep just because she'd wanted a small drink of water wasn't ideal.

Rex's room was the closest, with her and Mythra's shared room just after it. In all the time she'd known Rex, he'd always been quite a heavy sleeper, so she wasn't that worried about him. It was more Mythra or Corrine that could prove a problem. Still, best to be safe. She retained her sluggish pace, making sure her feet lightly brushed onto the ground as gently as possible to minimize the noise.

The house was completely silent. Except for a muffled, almost inaudible sound. Pyra paused for a moment, her brow furrowing as she tried to focus on the noise. Her analytical abilities were hardly on Mythra's level, but she still had fairly keen senses. Enough to notice such a small sound, at least. She closed her eyes, deepening her concentration.

It was coming from Rex's room. He was awake as well, then. She shifted closer to his door, wondering if she should go in. Both of them were having trouble sleeping, clearly. Maybe if they talked for a while, that'd help them drift off. Even just being around the other might help. She hesistated slightly, weighing up whether their conversation would end up disturbing Mythra. It'd probably be fine if they were quiet.

The sound increased sharply for an instant before returning to a low background hum once again. She recognized it instantly. A short, strangled sob, quickly forced down the moment it had been let out.

Rex was crying.

Pyra pushed the door open without thinking, stepping into the bedroom. Other than the bed itself, his room was relatively sparse, save for a few trinkets and small pieces of machinery scattered across a desk. Rex occassionally held onto items he'd found salvaging, rather than immediately selling them. Sometimes he was hoping to repair them to turn a better profit, others he simply kept for their novelty value. Regardless, he tended to leave them haphazardly strewn around any available surfaces.

Through the dim light emanating from her Core Crystal, she could just make out Rex's small frame, curled up underneath his sheets. A pillow was clutched in his trembling hands, his face pressed up against it, with beads of sweat running down his forehead.

Pyra crept towards the bed. Once she'd reached Rex, she crouched down to his head height, her hands clasping together with worry.

"Rex?" she called out gently. She leaned in slightly closer to the bed as she spoke. Rex froze at the sound of her voice. For a moment his already hunched shoulders seemed to tense further, his breath hitching. Slowly, Rex pulled his head away from the pillow and began to drag himself upwards, into a sitting position. He brought his knees towards his chest, as though trying to make himself as small as he could. And in all that time, he wouldn't speak to her.

Pyra could just barely see his face, peering at her from behind his knees, like he was trying to hide from her. Rex's eyes were glistening from his still-flowing tears, his face dampened.

He looked...terrified. And hurt. And alone.

Pyra had only seen that look on his face a handful of times. The last time had been at the World Tree, just as she had left him and returned to Aion. That decision had been almost impossibly hard for her- well,  _Pneuma-_ to make. She oftentimes found it hard to disentangle her own thoughts and feelings at the time from Mythra's. Pneuma  _had_ primarily been Pyra's mind, but elements of Mythra's consciousness were mixed in, making some things...blurry. Mythra seemed to have even greater trouble parsing those memories than her.

She knew that one feeling was hers, and hers alone, though. The anguish she felt watching him, seeing that  _face_ , that face she knew meant she had hurt him deeply, but he couldn't understand  _why_ she was doing it, and hearing the desperation in his voice as he called out to her.

She never wanted to see that face again. At the time, she really thought that was the last she'd ever see of Rex. That her final memory of him would be him heartbroken, begging her not to leave him. When Pyra and Mythra had returned to life, memories intact, she'd vowed to make sure she never hurt him like that again.

And now, here he was, with those same desperate, tearful eyes. Right in front of her.

When she'd entered his room, a tiny part of her had wondered if it would be better to leave him alone. To give him space. During Fan's funeral, she'd done just that, although not without some skepticism from Mythra. She got the sense that Rex sometimes processed his emotions better on his own, rather than with someone beside him. Despite the pain he obviously felt, something inside him seemed to help him bounce back, to bring a smile back to his face before long.

This, though...felt different. Too deep, too painful to bear by himself. It didn't matter what had happened. It didn't matter if it took all night to help him through it. She couldn't bear seeing him like this. Someone as cheerful, as kind, as fundamentally  _good_ as Rex didn't deserve it.

Tonight, she decided, he wasn't going to be alone. No matter what.

Pyra rose up from her crouch, climbing onto the bed and taking a seat on Rex's left, facing towards him. Her hand reached out towards his, softly wrapping around it. Not gripping, not squeezing. Simply touching him. Showing him that he wasn't alone. That she was there. His eyes briefly widened at the contact.

"Rex?"

No response. She slowly stroked his hand with her fingers.

"Rex. You don't need to tell me what's wrong. But...I'm here whenever you're ready, okay?"

She hoped that would be enough. Obviously, she wanted to know what he was so upset about. She stood a better chance of helping him if she knew. But forcing him to talk would do far more harm than good.

Rex gave a shallow, wordless nod. Pyra felt his hand shifting underneath hers, his fingers wrapping between her own and squeezing tightly, far tighter than she was used to. There was a strange  _searching_ quality to it, as if he was trying to confirm that he really  _was_ holding her hand. Pyra leaned towards him, her expression soft and caring. With her free hand, she reached out and brushed her fingers against his cheek.

"I'm here for you," she repeated, "And I'm not going anywhere."

Something in her words seemed to resonate with Rex.

His grip tightened further, bordering on becoming painful, but stopping just short. His head, which had been hung low since Pyra had begun speaking, awkwardly rose up as though being dragged by string. He turned to look at her directly, his eyes just barely managing to meet hers. The pain and fear persisted, but Pyra could see a small, intense light emerging in them. Rex was looking at her with single-minded focus, as if she was either the only thing in the world, or the only thing that  _mattered_ in the world.

His knees unfurled, and he shifted his weight onto them, crawling closer towards Pyra. Recognizing what he wanted, Pyra withdrew her hand from his cheek, instead stretching her arm outward with a welcoming smile. Rex's hand slipped away from hers as he approached. He flung his arms around her and pulled himself towards her. His arms were wrapped around her as tightly as he could, his head resting on her shoulder. Pyra returned the embrace with one arm, while she ran her fingers through his hair with the other.

Neither of them spoke as they held each other. Just as she believed Rex dealt with some things better alone, silence seemed like the best remedy for the moment. He didn't need to speak. Not yet. He just needed  _her._

The way he was clinging onto her felt much like how he'd held her hand. His hands shifted up and down her back, stroking her as they moved, but in a way that didn't seem purely affectionate. It was once again like he was trying to convince himself that she was  _real_ , that he was holding her and she was holding him.

It seemed to be working. The longer they embraced, the calmer Rex became. His hands were grasping and fidgety at first, but as time passed their movements slowed, became more controlled. She could feel his breathing gradually begin to level out- though it was still laboured, and disrupted by his tears. Even those, though not stopping, seemed to flow less freely. The occasional whimper or sharp gasp would break the silence, but he wasn't trying to force down something  _more_ any longer.

He was hardly  _fine,_ but she could tell he was improving. Certainly better than when she'd first found him. Maybe he'd be willing to talk soon. But she wouldn't force him to.

The trembling brought about from his crying seemed to be stopping. The pressure on her shoulder shifted as his head nuzzled against her. He felt...calm. Fragile, but calm.

"Rex?" Pyra said, "Are you ready? To talk, I mean."

His reply didn't come immediately. He tensed in Pyra's arms as he considered the question, before finally finding an answer.

"Yeah," he replied in a low, shaky voice.

Pyra smiled in relief. He wasn't in great shape, granted, but he was at least going to try. Still, he'd barely calmed down enough to even make the attempt. She shouldn't push him too hard. He could take things slowly, say as much or as little as he needed. Just so long as he knew she was there to help.

"Take your time, alright?"

She felt his head move up and down against her in a small nod. At least he understood she didn't need him to rush.

"It's...gonna sound stupid," he said.

Pyra shook her head.

"Whatever it is, you can tell me. I won't think it's stupid."

The sensation of Rex's hands clenching at her back returned for an instant, before relaxing. His muscles tensed against her as he took a breath, focusing himself.

"It was...a nightmare," he said. He spoke slowly and deliberately, as if was he was assembling the sentence word-by-word. "I...I know. I know, it's stupid. But it...well, it's not the first time. And they've been getting worse."

Pyra felt her own grip on Rex tighten up for a moment as she processed this. He'd been having these nightmares for...well, she didn't even  _know_ how long. Weeks. Months. And she'd never noticed.

It wasn't that she had expected him to tell her about them on his own. She understood that much. How hard it was to admit something like that, even if it was to someone close to you. She knew all too well what hiding something painful from someone you loved was like. How it made a twisted kind of  _sense_ to you to keep that pain hidden, even if they'd understand it.

But she should've seen it. Like Rex had seen her pain.

She stroked his back.

"What was it about? Is it...the same every time?"

Better to focus on the present. How long, how many, that could wait. What mattered now was  _why._

Rex pushed himself upwards, pulling ever so slightly further away from her. Not far enough to break the embrace, but enough to look into her eyes. The warmth and compassion in them always made him feel at ease. Safe. Safe enough that he could tell her everything.

"You," he said. "It's...always you."

Pyra's gaze fell downwards. As soon as he'd said that, she understood what it was. There's only one thing she could think of that had left him so devastated.

"It's...the World Tree, isn't it?" she whispered. Asking wasn't necessary. She  _knew._  But, she did so anyway. For some reason, she needed to hear him say it, to confirm her suspicions, even if it was obvious.

"Yeah. It is."

All-too familiar waves of guilt crashed through her mind. It was bad enough to learn that Rex had been suffering all this time without her noticing.

But it was  _her_ fault this was happening to him.

She'd assumed that, when they were reunited, the pain he felt that day would simply have...gone away. They were together now, with nothing to keep them apart. Pyra had no intention of ever leaving his side. He had nothing to worry about.

But, of course, that's not how these things worked. All it had taken was that one incident, that  _one_ awful, crushing moment where the girl he loved turned her back on him and walked towards her own death, to instill that fear in him. That nagging doubt that she'd really stay with him. The idea that she'd leave again, but this time, she wouldn't come back.

When Pyra left, Rex had never been more afraid in his life, and that fear had stayed with him ever since. It had been months since Elysium had been formed, and he was still haunted by that moment.

Because of her.

Another treacherous question rose to the front of her consciousness. Something she hated herself for wanting to ask. But once again, she needed that verbal confirmation, to hear it in Rex's own words. She forced herself to look at him.

"In those nightmares...what happens in them?"

Now it was Rex's head that tilted down. He bit his lip, trying to stop his tears from intensifying. Having to dwell on the subject was clearly taking a toll on him, but he was trying to push through it for her.

"It's...not always the same. They change...almost every time," he said, his speech slow and with a forced calmness to it. He looked at Pyra searchingly, unsure if he should continue. She nodded in confirmation.

After a moment's contemplation, Rex gave a stiff nod of his own, and explained.

The nightmares changed, but the theme remained the same. Rex always found himself reliving the day Elysium was created, reliving his seperation from Pyra.

Tonight had been the most common nightmare. The powerlessness of watching her leave, knowing that she was going to die. Of course, she and Mythra ultimately came back. But in the dream, he didn't know that. In the dream, Pyra dies. She dies, and he can't save her, and even when he wakes up, even when he  _knows_ it was just a dream, the loss still feels real to him. Just as it had done tonight.

Sometimes, though, things change. He'd be flying away from the World Tree on Azurda's back, looking down at her dormant Core Crystal. And it would simply never light up. She had died, and that was it.

In other nightmares, the Crystal  _did_ light up. Pyra and Mythra came back, just as he hoped they would. Everything would play out like normal. Poppi ran to embrace them. Nia pushed him towards the pair. He'd look at Pyra, standing there and smiling lovingly at him.

And she'd say something.

"Who are you?"

For some reason, that was the one that he found the hardest to endure. He considered it a small mercy that it was the rarest one. Simply speaking about each nightmare had been a struggle already, but when he reached that one, Rex had become visibly more upset, his speech quieter and more strained. His arms, still holding tightly onto Pyra, were trembling by the time he had finished speaking. Whatever strength he'd mustered to confide in her was quickly draining. He'd pushed himself too far.  _She'd_ let him push himself too far.

Rex opened his mouth to speak again, but slowly closed it when he saw Pyra shake her head at him. She didn't want him to carry on like this. He'd done more than enough already.

Pyra carefully pulled Rex back towards her, closing the small gap he had made between them. A part of her just wanted to hold him as close as she could. She wanted him to know he was loved. That she cared. Another part couldn't bring herself to keep looking into his eyes, so full of sadness and fear, but shining with complete adoration whenever he looked at her. The guilt told her she didn't deserve that love. Not after what she'd done to him.

She tried to push back against it, rationalize it. It wasn't  _really_ her fault. On some level, she knew that. She  _had_ to leave him, or he would have died, too.  _Everyone_ would have died. Hurting him wasn't her intention. She did what she had to do to save him, even if it cost her own life. She didn't  _know_ this is what would've happened. How  _could_ she?

Still, it gnawed away at her. If it hadn't been for her, Rex wouldn't be having these nightmares. He wouldn't be so scared of her leaving him again. She didn't know how to help him. How to fix this. How to end the nightmares. All she could think to do was hold him. Hold him, and tell him. Her head leaned forward, her mouth drawing level with his ear.

"I'm sorry."

"Huh?"

"This...it's all my fault. I...I hurt you. And it's my fault. And I'm...I'm so sorry," she said, her voice wavering. Tears of her own began welling up in her eyes, despite her efforts to supress them. She couldn't cry. Not right now. Not when Rex needed her so much.

"Th-that's not true!" Rex said. His voice became more forceful, louder than the strained whisper he had been speaking with so far. "Pyra, you've...you've never hurt me. What happened...wasn't your fault."

"It was! I...I could've told you, I could've  _said_  something, I-"

"And I could've gone with you!" Rex interrupted, pulling back to look directly at her, his eyes overflowing with tears. "I should've been able to reach you. I should've seen that...that there was something you couldn't tell me. I...We should've been together. It's  _my_ fault, Pyra. Not yours. Please...don't blame yourself. "

"Rex..." she murmured.

"Pyra, when...When I thought you were gonna..." his voice faltered. Even now, with her right there in front of him, Rex hated even having to think about the possibility. With a sharp intake of breath, he continued. "When I thought you were gonna die, I was...scared. Really, really scared. And...and angry. At myself. At everything. And it still scares me. It scares me more than anything, 'cause I..."

He paused, his eyes briefly evading hers. Soon, he'd gathered what courage he had left and met her gaze again.

"I love you, Pyra. I...I dunno if I can live without you. I just...I need you. I need you, and I don't...I don't want to lose you."

Pyra stared at Rex for a brief moment, her mouth opening and closing as she tried to form an adequete reply. The words wouldn't come. She simply didn't know what to say.

Maybe, she thought, words weren't the only way to respond. To show that she loved him as much as he loved her.

She pushed back against her tears, forcing a smile onto her face. A hand slid under Rex's chin and cupped his face, her fingers lightly stroking his cheek. Slowly, Pyra's head approached Rex's, until, finally, she pulled him into a deep kiss, deeper than any they'd shared before.

Rex's eyes shot open in shock. His body stiffened, but he quickly relaxed, allowing himself to melt into the kiss. His fears seemed to fade away to mere whispers in the back of his mind. They didn't matter anymore. All that mattered to him right now, in this moment, was Pyra.

They held the kiss for as long as they could, though their tears had made both of them fairly short of breath. As they pulled away from each other, Rex's lips finally broke into a smile, his gaze fixed completely on Pyra. She couldn't help returning the smile, joy welling up in her heart at the sight.

His smile was small, and weak. But for the first time that night, he looked just a little like his normal self again. Like the bright, cheery, endlessly kind boy she'd fallen in love with. Seeing even a tiny hint that Rex was overcoming his pain meant the world to her. She wanted him to keep smiling like that, with pure, genuine happiness. No matter what it took. If he said he needed her, then she'd be there for him.

"Hey, Rex?" she said softly, still smiling at her Driver.

"Yeah?"

"Do you want me...to stay tonight?"

She wouldn't normally ask him something like this. Under normal circumstances, she'd never even think to ask. But this was an exception.

A faint blush crept onto Rex's face as the implications of the question dawned on him. Almost as soon as it came, however, it vanished. Tonight, any nerves he might have had at the thought of sharing a bed with Pyra were irrelevant. He didn't care. As long as she was there, he felt  _safe._  If she was close to him, he had nothing to fear.

He nodded slowly.

"Um...yeah. I kinda...don't wanna be alone. Sorry, just...don't leave me, okay?" Rex gave her an apologetic look, conscious of how much Pyra was going out of her way to help him. Asking so much of her seemed incredibly selfish to him, but he couldn't help feeling like he  _needed_ her beside him.

Pyra shook her head as though it was completely unthinkable.

"Of course I won't," she said, a serious expression on her face. Rex sighed in relief, his smile growing almost unnoticeably wider.

Breaking their embrace for the first time, Rex tilted to one side, leaning towards the bed. Pyra joined him as they both slowly lay on their sides, shuffling into a comfortable position. Once they'd both settled, Rex's arms slid around Pyra's back again as he pulled himself towards her, resting his head just below hers, next to her Core Crystal. Pyra quickly reciprocated. She brought a hand upwards, towards the back of Rex's head, her fingers carefully entwining with his hair. Her other hand moved towards his back, holding him in place.

"Rex," she said, her eyes drooping shut, "I love you. I love you, and I'm never going to leave you, okay? I'll always be here for you."

A little extra pressure pushed against her as Rex tightened his embrace.

"Pyra...thanks. I...I love you so much," he whispered. "I'll always be there for you too."

"I know you will."

Rex's eyes slowly closed, his body relaxing in her arms. A minute later, Pyra could tell he was finally asleep. His breathing was slow. Peaceful. All the pain and fear he carried seemed to have been left behind.

Still, she thought, this probably wasn't over. These things were never solved this quickly, this easily. Rex would need much, much more help than this. But she'd be with him through it all.

As her consciousness drifted into sleep, Pyra mentally reaffirmed what she'd said to Rex. She would never leave him again. No matter what.

**Works inspired by this one:**

  * [Almost](https://archiveofourown.org/works/16378796) by [Vargras](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Vargras/pseuds/Vargras)




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